Vacation from my phone

I love taking pictures. I especially love taking pictures on vacation. I have a ton of photos on my big camera....but I'm soaking in the bathtub so I thought I'd include some from my phone. (Even though the quality on my Canon is waaay better...they have come so far with phone cameras. So convenient too)

We are on the tail end of our trip. Two more days and we are home. I'm loving this time away and all the awesome memories we've made. I feel so incredibly blessed!!

We hopped on a plane Friday morning and flew to Salt Lake City, Utah. We got a car and drove 30 minutes to Park City. Such a neat little ski town. Our hotel lobby. 

Getting comfortable!

These boys were sooo excited to see the Hobbit. So we made sure to watch it our first night here. 

Relaxing in bed....playing I touches for a bit to wind down. 

Oh, I could get used to this view every morning. I swear, coffee just tastes better in the mountains!

We hit Gorgoza Park for a day of snow tubing and winter fun. 

In line for our tubes

They have these cool conveyor belts that take you and your tube to the top of the mountain. 

Enjoying the ride

Halfway up, you sit inside your tube and another conveyor takes you to the top. 

Doesn't look very tall or steep but it is. So much fun!

Taking a break inside the warming yurt with some hot chocolate. 

They also have mini snowmobiles (for ages 5-12) and the boys had a blast driving their own. 

Our room has a hot tub on the balcony. You better believe these two crazies wanted to get in. Brrrrr!!

Make that three crazies!!

Chilling with robes....I'm pretty sure these guys will never want to leave here. 

The next day we went on a snowmobile tour. Very pretty views!

Halfway thru, we stopped at this cute little cabin and ate lunch. 

Today we went dog sledding. So fun and I encourage you to put this on your bucket list!!

Cooper loved the dogs!

Amazing memories!

Cooper informed us today that he wants to be a musher when he grows up. :)

Such a fun area where our hotel is at. Lots of amenities and conveniences. 

In our down time, the boys have been making comic books and reading their captain underpants books that Santa gave them. 

Today we went to park city mountain resort and rode the alpine coaster. I so badly wanted to video the ride but there were signs everywhere saying not to. It was so crazy fun!!

It was like a mini roller coaster in the mountains. With pretty snow views. It went really fast too!

Things I learned This Christmas and Other Stuff

A few things I learned this holiday season:

1.  It's not nearly as fun to make cookies for Santa from a boxed cookie mix.  In all of my years of baking cookies for Santa we have always done from scratch.  I decided to grab a box real quick and it was a no go.  Not fun.  Not as good.  And stupid me didn't read the box to see that the icing didn't come with it.  Huge fail.  Never again.

2.  It gets harder to play "Santa" the older your kids get.  Both of mine still believe but they are older now.....which means they stay up later.  Which means that Santa can't get started until much later (because we have to ensure the littles are sound asleep) and playing Santa while you are sleepy is not a good idea.

After the boys had been asleep a good hour or so, I crept into the pitch dark living room and felt around for the stockings.  I decided to get those and take them back into my room to fill them and then return them under the tree.  As I was pulling the stockings off the holders....the large metal "E" fell off and hit the tile.  Super loud.  And Hudson's room shares a wall with the living room.  I ran back out towards our room as Shawn was coming down the hall to see what the noise was.  There is NO WAY Hudson didn't hear it.  But, he's very nervous when it comes to Santa or the Tooth Fairy (the thought of either of them coming into our house freaks him out) and I just knew that he was lying in bed, worried that some elf was wondering around our living room.  Poor kid.

3.  It's been years since I've seen this movie.  As in.....I was probably a young kid the last time I saw it.  I've always heard the funny lines or referenced "you'll shoot your eye out" but I honestly couldn't remember the story line.

I was at the grocery store last week and decided to buy it for our family to watch.  It totally sucked.

Stupid story line.   Weird dad.  Horrible language (yea, thanks alot rated PG movie that says "son of a bitch" and other not-so-great words)  What am I missing here?  Why does everyone love this movie?

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On Sunday, Cece and the girls came to celebrate with us.

Then the boys went to spend a night at their house.  They had tons of fun!

They built forts and made bracelets.

Hung out by the fire.

On Christmas Eve night, we sprinkled the reindeer food out on the lawn.

(anyone else's 10 year old sprinkle reindeer food with itouch/charger in hand?  Really?)

Christmas light scavenger hunt.  Thank you Pinterest!  We enjoyed driving around to see the lights and checking off our list.

Pouring milk for Santa.

Leaving cookies for him too.

Reading a story before bed.

Trying to get some decent pictures by the tree.....

....and it just kept getting worse by the minute......

......oh my.  Crazy boys!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!